The Letter
by katdvs
Summary: "The moon glowed brightly in the December night sky." She read aloud from the letter in her hand as she looked out her window, up at the moon, tonight it did seem to glow brightly.


_Author Note: I saw a prompt on an account I follow on tumblr this morning, and since I've been in a funk for weeks—on top of all the family drama of moving/looking for a house drama I thought I would see if I could write anything, and well Rucas is still speaking to me and gave me this._

* * *

 **The Letter**

 _"The moon glowed brightly in the December night sky."_ She read aloud from the letter in her hand as she looked out her window, up at the moon, tonight it did seem to glow brightly.

She studied the handwriting, a faint smile crossing her lips before looking back at the post mark, Texas, Lucas. She brought the paper up to her nose, the faint scent of cedar, pine, pure masculinity greeted her from the paper. Oh, how she missed burying her head in the crook of his neck and breathing it in. What she wouldn't give to have one more night with him.

Looking back at the letter she continued to read it, _"The fields and meadows look like a painting when the moonlight shines down on the property. Some nights when I can't look at my text books any longer I go and stand at the big picture window at the top of the stairs, I stare at the vast landscape before me, and Riley I miss you."_

She put the letter down, rising from her chair to pace around, she hadn't expected him to say that. She couldn't remember the last time he admitted he missed her—no that was a lie. She could remember it.

Almost exactly two years ago on the roof of her building. She could still see the pain in his green eyes, she hadn't been expecting him, she hadn't been expecting anything that night when her boyfriend Carl dragged her up to the roof, dropped to one knee and proposed. It was half a second later that the door opened and Lucas had shown up.

It had been silent, except for the sound of something breaking—Lucas' heart. "Riley, I miss you, I love you." He'd told her, his mouth hanging open as he reached out for her, while Carl wrapped his arm around her waist and told him to get lost.

Riley had known the second Carl dropped to one knee that her answer was no, but the way he'd treated Lucas made it doubly so.

Her mind had been spinning, she threw her hands in the air, her stomach a knot of confusion, "Fuck you both." She could remember the way her lips quivered, a man she couldn't see a future with, and the only one she ever had both looked at her as though she destroyed their worlds.

She hadn't been able to face either of them. She packed a suitcase at four in the morning, caught the first train to DC that morning, and went to see her uncle Eric. He helped her find a job, that soon had her moving to Paris to work for an Ambassador.

She wrote to Carl, explaining that he wasn't the one for her. That the longer they'd been together—and it had only been two months at that point, she realized they didn't have that spark. She confessed that the cowboy who had interrupted his proposal stole it years ago on a subway ride.

When she wrote to Lucas, she held back. The feelings she still felt for him were confusing. She needed this time away from him, away from the expectation of Riley and Lucas. She needed to stretch, see the world.

She'd gotten to do that the last couple of years.

She got to attend balls, meet influential people, see the good that was being done in the world, that most people don't know or understand.

She had a few flings.

Flings were all they could ever be.

Her heart belonged to a cowboy, she couldn't get it back from him if she tried. Her own heart was connected to his—at least she still hoped so.

Looking out at the view of Paris at night, she took a moment, letting herself have the hope, the need, the want for him still. At any moment, as she finished his letter it could all come crashing down around her.

She wasn't ready yet. She wasn't sure she could handle the thought.

The idea.

The nightmare of knowing he moved on.

Why else would Lucas have written her after all this time?

Riley closed her eyes after staring at the Eiffel tower glowing in front of her. She took a long breath, it wasn't deep it was focused as she prepared to have whatever was left of her heart broken.

 _"I still love you Riley. When I look out at the property, I can see you learning to ride, I can see you planting a flower garden with our daughters, and a vegetable garden with the boys."_

She felt her heart jump, her eyes started to burn with tears. The paper jumped in her hands as her fingers shook.

 _"I tried to move on, I know you have, first with Carl, and then with men you've met in Europe. But none of those men are me Riley. None of the women I've met are you. So please put this letter down and go open your apartment door."_

She blinked, "Open my apartment door?" That made absolutely no sense. She dropped the letter on a table, running her hands through her hair, which was loose around her shoulders, a wave to it after being pulled back in a tight bun all day. Her eyes red, her lips plump, her cheeks red as she studied her reflection in one of the many mirrors.

One deep breath.

Another deep breath before crossing the apartment to open her door, anticipating to find the hall empty.

The door opened, her senses came alive as she saw him. Hopeful green eyes framed by sun kissed skin, and the lips she dreamed on hers. "Lucas" was all she said before her arms were around him, and his around hers.

Unspoken they held each other, breathing the other in before she pulled him in, closing the door. "How, why?"

"I love you" was all he said before his fingers tangled in her hair, his lips captured her, love enwrapping them.


End file.
